1. Field of the Invention
This invention consists of a knife with a unique combination of safety features to minimize and prevent puncture and laceration wounds to the user. It was specifically designed for cutting honeycomb core used in the fabrication of reinforced plastic composite structures. Embodiments of the invention provide for cutting of other materials e.g. rubber slabs, foam, plastic, livestock products, vegetables and other food.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of implements are currently used for cutting honeycomb core, e.g., sharpened putty knives, straight edge blades, e.g. electric carving knife blades, also, general utility knives, and jackknives.
Currently used implements for this application are dangerous and inflict severe punctures and lacerations to the hand and other body parts. Deep blood vessels and nerves can be seriously damaged. The resultant affect to industry, business and the domestic front is costly due to such factors as time loss, decreased productivity, increased operating expenses, etc.
The frequency of injury may be reduced by implementation of protective sheaths (e.g. for putty knife and straight edge blades) or by handles into which the blades may be manually folded or retracted (e.g. jackknives or general utility knives). The value of such safety features is minimal, however, because implementation is limited to non-productive times and because operators tend to avoid their use. A knife can be designed with an automatically retractable guard as its sole protective feature, but it also is dangerous because the same retractability feature can cause it to open automatically as well, thus exposing the blade when not expected by the operator.
It should again be noted that cutting implements currently used for sectioning honeycomb core are dangerous to use. Prior art safety measures are not production effective and/or depend upon operator implementation.
The invention herein described overcomes these problems and automatically supplies the safety which is needed at all times by combining an automatically retractable guard with a manually triggered, automatically retractable, self-locking release assembly.